quotations about government
All government -- indeed, every human benefit and enjoyment, every virtue and every prudent act -- is founded on compromise and barter.
EDMUND BURKE
second speech on Conciliation with America, 1775
A general government shall do all those things which pertain to it, and all the local governments shall do precisely as they please in respect to those matters which exclusively concern them.
ABRAHAM LINCOLN
speech at Columbus, September 16, 1859
Man, born in a family, is compelled to maintain society from necessity, from natural inclination, and from habit. The same creature, in his further progress, is engaged to establish political society, in order to administer justice, without which there can be no peace among them, nor safety, nor mutual intercourse. We are, therefore, to look upon all the vast apparatus of our government, as having ultimately no other object or purpose but the distribution of justice.
DAVID HUME
"Of the Origin of Government", Essays, Moral, Political, and Literary
It takes very little to govern good people. Very little. And bad people can't be governed at all.
CORMAC MCCARTHY
No Country for Old Men
But whether we've won or lost, we need to trust that the government is acting for the (politically) correct reasons: liberal, if liberals have won; conservative, if conservatives have won; libertarian, if libertarians have won. We need to believe that the government is tracking the sort of interests it was intended to track.... When the actions of government conflict with those expectations, we will look beyond trust, for other reasons, to see whether they might explain the puzzle. Other reasons, such as money in the wrong places. When we find it--when we see that money was in the wrong place--it will affect us. It will weaken our trust in government. It will undermine our motivation to engage.
LAWRENCE LESSIG
Republic
All kings is mostly rapscallions.
MARK TWAIN
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
The populace must think their ruler is a greater man than they, else why should they follow him? Above all a leader must be a showman, giving his people the bread and circuses they require.
BRIAN HERBERT & KEVIN J. ANDERSON
Dune: House Atreides
Government is like a sincere alcoholic, who does not want to cause irreparable damage to his liver and yet cannot give up excessive drinking.
N. S. SAKSENA
Terrorism History and Facets
Government exists to protect us from each other. Where government has gone beyond its limits is in deciding to protect us from ourselves.
RONALD REAGAN
attributed, The Age of Turbulence
Those who love their country never wish to rule it.
ABRAHAM MILLER
Unmoral Maxims
History, in general, only informs us what bad government is.
THOMAS JEFFERSON
letter to John Norvell, June 11, 1807
In all governments, there must of necessity be both the law and the sword; laws without arms would give us not liberty, but licentiousness; and arms without laws, would produce not subjection, but slavery. The law, therefore, should be unto the sword what the handle is to the hatchet; it should direct the stroke and temper the force.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON
Lacon
The larger the slice taken by government, the smaller the cake available for everyone.
MARGARET THATCHER
Statecraft: Strategies for a Changing World
Governments, if they endure, always tend increasingly toward aristocratic forms. No government in history has been known to evade this pattern. And as the aristocracy develops, governments tend more and more to act exclusively in the interests of the ruling class--whether that class be hereditary royalty, oligarchs of financial empires, or entrenched bureaucracy.
FRANK HERBERT
Children of Dune
Free government is self-government. A government of the people by the people. The best government of this sort is that which the people think best.
WALTER BAGEHOT
The English Constitution
The best discharge of government is government of our selves, and there we must begin.
BENJAMIN WHICHCOTE
Moral and Religious Aphorisms
The grossest, the cruelest, the most selfish, the most easily pervertible and perverted thing in this world, is government.
HENRY WARD BEECHER
Proverbs from Plymouth Pulpit
Governments have a tendency not to solve problems, only to rearrange them.
RONALD REAGAN
attributed, Presidential Wit and Wisdom
The object of government in peace and in war is not the glory of rulers or of races, but the happiness of the common man.
WILLIAM BEVERIDGE
Social Insurance and Allied Services
The mischiefs of anarchy have been equaled by the mischiefs of government.
HENRY WARD BEECHER
Proverbs from Plymouth Pulpit